Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp.
| Uniloc USA Inc. v. Microsoft Corp. | |
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| United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island | |
| Date decided | July 22, 2006 |
| Citations | 447 F. Supp. 2d 177 |
| Judge sitting | William E. Smith |
| Keywords | |
| Patent infringement under United States law | |
Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 447 F.Supp.2d 177 (2006). was a patent lawsuit originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
Both Uniloc and Microsoft utilized a product registration software intended to reduce unauthorized copying of software. At the district court level, the court granted summary judgement of non-infringement by Microsoft of Uniloc's patent. The court's ruling was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which reversed and remanded the decision. In the remanded district court case, the jury returned a verdict of infringement, finding Microsoft's infringement to be willful, and rewarding Uniloc $388 million in damages. However the district court granted a new trial on infringement and willfulness as well as other motions following post trial motions. In response, Uniloc appealed once again.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the new trial on infringement, but affirmed that Uniloc lacked evidence to prove willfulness and granted a new trial on damage costs. In this decision, the Federal Circuit shifted precedent and rejected the previously widely used "25 percent rule of thumb" in calculating patent damage awards.
In March 2012, Uniloc and Microsoft reached a "final and mutually agreeable resolution", the terms of which were not disclosed.
Uniloc is a computer security and copy protection software company. Founded in 1992, their technology is based on a patent granted to Ric Richardson and develops "try and buy" software distributed via magazines and preinstalled on new computers. The particular patent in question is the '216 patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,490,216) which is a software registration system that deters copying of software onto other computers. Uniloc argued that its patent was infringed by Microsoft's Product Activation feature.
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